Your silence proves to us that you are still suffering, and
I feel urgently impelled to tell you, my dear brother, that Jo
and I suffer too because we know you are ill. Oh how happy we
should be if we could do something for you that might give you
solace. Dr. Peyron writes us that we are not to be uneasy, and
that this crisis, though it is lasting longer than the others,
will pass off too. If the distance were not so great, I should
certainly have gone to see you, and I count on it that, as soon
as you feel the need of it, you will say the word, and I shall
come at once.

Last week it was already a year since I got married. How
time flies. We have every reason to be satisfied with this
year. I do not forget that you insisted on my getting married,
and you were right, for I am much happier. It is true that my
dear wife is not like everybody, and that I was marvelously
lucky when I found her. We understand each other very well, and
our home is pleasant. The little one particularly gives Jo a
lot of work, but he is growing surprisingly. He is of a nervous
disposition but very gentle. He will stay awake for hours
without crying; he is beginning to smile and to make sounds
that must be the beginning of speaking. It would do you good to
see him and play with him.

It is our intention to pass the two holidays at Whitsuntide
with Pissarro, who has invited us. He is going to London this
summer to work there.

Your pictures at the exhibition are having a lot of success.
The other day Diaz stopped me in the street and said, Give your
brother my compliments and tell him that his pictures are
highly remarkable. Monet said that your pictures were the best
of all in the exhibition. A lot of other artists have spoken to
me about them. Serret came to our house to see the other
pictures, and he was enraptured. He said that if he had no
style of his own in which he could still express some things,
he would change his course and go seek what you are seeking.
Lauzet is back; he was not able to call on you, for his mother
and sister, who lived in Marseilles, have come to stay with
him, and he had to help them move, and he didn't have a penny
to spend on a detour.

My dear brother, remember that nothing in the world would
give me greater pleasure than knowing you happy and in good
health, and that every day I pray for your speedy recovery.

Be courageous, and a cordial handshake from Jo and from your
brother who loves you.